We consider the efforts of the British state, in the Victorian era and in the early 20th century, to maintain its position as the premier naval and imperial power on Earth, and to contain the political and military challenges from the borderlands of the empire, the German challenge from Europe, and the series of internal threats to the British social system -- including the radicalized labour and women's suffrage movements and the bitter fight over Irish Home Rule, which brought the United Kingdom to the brink of civil war mere weeks before the assassination in Sarajevo. Image: Liberal Party propaganda poster promoting the People's Budget, ca. 1910. Suggested further reading: George Dangerfield, "The Strange Death of Liberal England." Please sign up as a patron to hear patron-only lectures on Germany and Bosnia! -- https://www.patreon.com/user?u=5530632